Pakatan chips away at BN's last bastion of dominance

GE13 WATCH JOHOR While Pakatan Rakyat appears buoyed by huge turnouts numbering up to tens of thousands at its ceramah sessions in major towns across Johor, these ares not enough to tilt the balance of power. The decisive battles will take place far beyond the sight of most people.

In Segamat , where even caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin could not ignore the 20,000-strong Pakatan rally in town, the parliamentary constituency is not in the bag yet, for the opposition coalition is struggling to make headway in the BN's last bastion - the Felda settlements.

Located some 40km away from the heart of Segamat, up and down dark windy roads and close to Johor's border with Negri Sembilan, is Felda Palong Timor, where the DAP parliamentary candidate received a miserable four percent of the votes cast in the last general election.

There, on a cold rainy night, Pakatan's Segamat parliamentary candidate Chua Jui Meng ( left ), who is also Johor PKR chief, went on the stump, watched by some 50 people in a nearby coffee shop, outside which hung a banner with the words "Pillar of Umno".

The BN, led by Umno is the brainchild of Felda settlements such as this one, and being self-sustaining and isolated, Umno has deep roots here, with there being no presence at all of the other political parties until recently.

Unlike the towns, people in Felda settlement are unwilling to come out and listen to outsiders, thus Pakatan has adopted a modus operandi of blasting its ceramah over loudspeakers that can reach a radius of up to 500 metres.

In the past, Pakatan campaigners would more than likely be kicked out and the fact they could even set foot in a Felda scheme suggests that the coalition is slowly but gradually chipping away at BN's final bastion of total power.

Chua acknowledged that due to their isolation and being tight-knit communities, the backing of local Felda supporters was crucial, even if it was difficult for Pakatan campaigners to come in.

"This is the heart of the Malay heartland and it is basically a black area for us. Segamat is an agricultural belt, if it isn't Felda, then its Felcra. If not, then it is a palm oil or rubber smallholding.

"It is such profiling that makes it tough for people like us, but we must reach out to them and tell them about the future we have promised for them," he said.

BN has no qualms to make clear its position that the area is its backyard, with some 10 BN T-shirt clad youths in the crowd listening to Chua, who later went to greet them.

"No problem... this is democracy and we're not going to disturb you," Palong Timur 1 Umno Youth branch chief Kayzri Ahmad said as he shook Chua's hand and then led his group to chants of "Hidup BN!" as the others looked on.

Different ball game

Recognising that this is BN's heartland, Chua, who rarely publicly speaks of his BN past, sought to use his history to reach out to the people here.

"Why did I leave BN? Because the government has been in power for too long and it thinks it can do anything, even spend our money as it likes," he said.

His speech was well-tailored, touching on bread and butter issues as well as Felda-related matters, with the occasional jibe at the alleged lavish lifestyle of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor.

Over at Felda Chemplak Barat, which comes under the parliamentary constituency of Labis , the same was observed as only party supporters turned up at a Pakatan ceramah as its loud speakers blasted into the neighbourhood.

"People don't dare to come out. Maybe they are worried about being seen at an opposition ceramah, especially in an Umno area.

"Our PAS friends advised me that in areas like this, do not bash Umno, just focus on bread-and-butter issues," said DAP's Labis parliamentary candidate S Ramakrishnan ( right ).

But this particular scheme, which is less isolated than Felda Palong Timor, saw DAP gain almost 10 percent of the votes at the parliamentary level.

Pakatan is not likely to win support in such Felda schemes during this election cycle, but the goal is to capture enough ground to tilt the balance in mixed seats such as Segamat and Labis.

This is necessary for Pakatan to achieve its target of having Johor deliver 10 parliamentary seats to the opposition in its quest for federal power.

'Pakatan eyeing young Felda settlers'

PAS' Mazlan Aliman , who has been at the forefront of Pakatan's attack on BN's Felda bastions under the auspices of the non-governmental organisation Anak, believes that the opposition coalition can pull this off

The key is the young Felda voters and PAS hopes to win at least 50 percent of their support, thus pushing its total Felda support base to 40 percent, said Mazlan ( left ) who is the PAS Bukit Permai state candidate in Johor.

He revealed that PAS has set up a special task force to target young Felda settlers through Facebook.

"We send them information, four to five messages daily. During this general election, we are sending them up to seven messages every day.

"Social media is a gift from Allah," Mazlan said, with a big smile during a meeting earlier this week at Felda Taib Andak, one of oldest Felda settlements in the country, which is located 6km from Kulai town.

Mazlan spoke at a ceramah there which attracted some 50 villagers, a rare sight in any Felda settlement, and even more surprising was that PAS flags and banners were flying in the settlement.

Generally, the less isolated and nearer to a town centre a Felda settlement is located, the easier it is for Pakatan to make inroads, and this was the case with Felda Taib Andak.

Mazlan said the issues highlighted by PAS in these areas include the alleged short-changing of Felda settlers through the manipulation of oil palm extraction rates, settlers' debt to Felda and the listing of Felda Global Ventures (FGV).

'United front key to more parliamentary seats'

On top of the direct campaigning, Pakatan also needs to present a united front in order to maximise its support among Felda voters.

This is crucial, for the trend in the last general election showed that Felda settlers tended to be more willing to vote for PAS than for any other party.

This was observed in Felda Palong Timur and Felda Chemplak Barat, where the PAS' state seat candidate obtained twice the numbers of votes than that obtained by the DAP at parliamentary level.

In Pakatan's campaign in Felda settlements throughout Johor, PAS has been the critical bridge for DAP and PKR.

Mindful of this, the opposition coalition, particularly its DAP candidates, have made it a point to put on their orange-collared Pakatan uniform wherever they go.

The key for the opposition coalition to maximise its parliamentary seats, will be for PAS' allies to present a united entity under 'Pakatan Rakyat' in the hope that Felda settlers would see that that PAS, PKR and DAP are all of the same.